National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News27 September 2017 A man with a van load of weapons has been jailed for five years after a National Crime Agency investigation. Jaromir Hrbek, 59, was stopped last month driving through the Port of Dover in his Peugeot Expert van. Security officials discovered a magazine of ammunition in the driver’s door compartment and notified Border Force. Hrbek, who said he had been to visit his daughter in Edinburgh, denied there was anything else in his van and said he had a gun at home in the Czech Republic and held a licence for it. Officers searched the van and discovered a loaded 9mm Walther PPK in the back of the passenger seat. Hrbek said he was getting div…

Return to News27 September 2017 A multi-agency taskforce has set up in Northern Ireland to tackle all forms of criminality linked to paramilitarism and protect communities. Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the National Crime Agency and HM Revenue & Customs have come together to form the Paramilitary Crime Taskforce. NCA Director Lynne Owens was at the launch of the taskforce in Belfast yesterday alongside PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, HMRC Director Simon York, Chair of the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme Board, Anthony Harbinson, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for NI, Chloe Smith, and Head of Civil Service David Sterling. Th…

Return to News26 September 2017 A jailed smuggler who imported drugs worth millions of pounds into the UK has been ordered to hand over £1.2m or have seven years added to his sentence. A judge told Patrick Udensi, 36, from North London (pictured top), to pay the sum after National Crime Agency (NCA) officers discovered he had valuable assets in Nigeria. Nigerian national Udensi is serving a 15-year prison sentence after smuggling parcels of cocaine and cannabis with street value of £1.8m to addresses in North London. He laundered the proceeds of his crimes by buying car parts in the UK and shipping them to Nigeria where they were sold on the open market on his behal…

Return to NewsA former firearms certificate holder has been sentenced to five years in prison after NCA officers found a cache of weapons and ammunition in his home. Jonathan Knight, aged 47 from Cannock, was arrested on the 30th January 2017 on suspicion of possessing a shotgun without a shotgun certificate by officers from the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit. When his house was searched an unlicensed shotgun was discovered along with other illegal firearms and a huge amount of ammunition. Knight was charged in April 2017 with eight offences relating to possessing 5 prohibited Brocock firearms, an unlicensed Baikal shotgun, 2 overpowered air wea…

Return to NewsA man who filmed children using a camera hidden in his bathroom clock has been jailed following an investigation by the National Crime Agency, supported by the PSNI. Patrice Renault, 43, of Belfast, also downloaded hundreds of videos of child abuse on to his computers, as well as extreme pornography and voyeuristic pictures and videos. He was today sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment for making indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography as well as 8 months' consecutive imprisonment for voyeurism at Belfast Crown Court. The judge said Renault would spend six months in prison and then serve a suspended prison sentence of 18 months. NCA…

Return to News19 September 2017 An American footballer who flew cocaine with a street level value of £716,000 into the UK in a light aircraft has been jailed for 10 years. Dutch national Kevin Ricardo Bourne admitted importing the Class A drugs when the plane landed on 27 December 2016 at Biggin Hill Airfield, south east London. The plane arrived from a small airfield in Hoeven, near Rotterdam, where IT worker Bourne, plays American football part time. There were four occupants in the plane: two Dutch crew, Bourne and his German girlfriend. No action was taken against the others. Border Force officers discovered nine kilograms of cocaine inside plastic bags hidden in…

Return to News19 September 2017 Five men have admitted being part of a network responsible for laundering at least £16 million stolen by international cyber criminals, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Iurie Mereacre, a 37-year-old Moldovan national, ran the money laundering service from his home in Woodford Green, London, along with his associates, brothers Iurie Bivol (36) and Serghei Bivol (31), and Ryingota Gincota (28). Over a three year period, the group set up and controlled around 400 bank accounts in a conspiracy which involved receiving stolen funds into one account, then dispersing it in smaller amounts to a number of other accounts. T…

Return to News A 29-year old man from Bordesley Green, who supplied guns and ammunition to organised crime groups across the UK, has been jailed for 22 years. Umair Khan used the online identity ‘cheeko412’ to buy explosives, ammunition and stun guns from the dark web, including more than 50 revolvers and over 1,600 rounds of ammunition between August 2014 and February 2017. Officers from the National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service’s joint Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) arrested Khan on the 20th February 2017. Khan had ordered a hand grenade and arranged for it to be delivered to an address in Birmingham but OCP officers intercepted it and …

Return to News 15 September 2017 A man who drove more than 7,000 miles only to be caught trying to enter the UK with class A drugs in his fuel tank has been jailed for nine years. Bahram Badiani, 47, from Earls Court Road in London was stopped by Border Force officers as he attempted to board a Channel Tunnel service from France to England on 25 November 2015. Initially he told officers he had come from the Mont Blanc area of France where he had visited a girlfriend. A search of his BMW revealed that 17 bottles containing around six kilos of opium, with an estimated street value of more than £90,000, had been hidden in the fuel tank. Officers also found an Iranian p…

Home News Fraudster threw wallet full of fraudulent cards out of window Return to News 12 September 2017 A fraudster who threw a wallet full of bogus credit cards out of his window when NCA officers arrived to arrest him has been jailed for two years and four months. Alexander Akinyele, 37, of Doncaster Place, Barrow-in-Furness, had earlier pleaded guilty to ten fraud offences, a Computer Misuse Act Offence and to possession of a false ID with intent. NCA officers arrived at Akinyele’s home in August 2016. Moments before his arrest, Akinyele threw a wallet containing eight fraudulent credit and store cards and a forged driving licence out of a window. The sub…

Return to News8 September 2017 An ex-primary school governor and church warden who admitted importing a child sex doll but sought a court ruling on whether it was obscene, has been jailed. David Turner, 72, was sentenced today to 16 months by judge Simon James at Canterbury Crown Court. He admitted importing the child sex doll and possessing more than 34,000 images of child sex abuse. National Crime Agency officers arrested Turner in November last year after Border Force officers intercepted a 3ft doll which he was attempting to import from China. The Border Force led Fast Parcel Joint Border Intelligence Unit (JBIU) at Stansted Airport seized the parcel which was la…

Return to News7 September 2017 A man has been jailed for directing and encouraging a child sex abuser who live streamed the rape of a six-year-old boy. Philip Crabtree, 35, is the fourth man to be locked up after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into an internet chatroom where the child’s rape was streamed in real time. Unemployed Crabtree accessed the chatroom 166 times during five months of 2015. He was in the chatroom between 9.40pm on 22 July and 2.01am 23 July 2015 watching the attack and emailing the abuser – William Chandler Augusta, 20 - sick instructions. While watching the rape, Crabtree – who has no children – asked the others watching: “Any dad…

Home News Suspected trafficking ringleader held by NCA in modern slavery investigation Return to News 06 September 2017 A woman suspected of being one of the ringleaders of a criminal network involved in trafficking young women from Nigeria to Europe for sexual exploitation has been charged under the Modern Slavery Act. National Crime Agency officers arrested British national Joesphine Iyamu, 50, after she landed at Heathrow airport on a flight from Lagos, Nigeria, on 24 August 2017. A 59-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of money laundering. On 25 August, Iyamu was charged with arranging to facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitat…

Return to NewsA sex offender has been jailed after he admitted inciting children under 13 to perform sex acts on themselves on at least 50 occasions. Derek Hutton, 49, of Harrrow, North-West London, who also admitted engaging in sexual activity in front of children on at least 250 occasions, was imprisoned for 10 years at Blackfriars Crown Court today following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. The sentence was extended for five years, to be served on licence, by the judge. He had admitted created more than 400 accounts on a children’s social media site in order to lure victims on to separate video chatting platforms. Pleaded guilty He also pleaded guilty …

Return to News01 September 2017 A man who admitting importing a child doll to have sex with it has been sentenced. Brian Hopkins, 40, ordered the 3ft 9in doll from Hong Kong but Border Force officers at Stansted Airport seized it last October before it was delivered. The flat-chested doll – which is anatomically correct – was addressed to Hopkins’s home in Mannamead, Plymouth, Devon. National Crime Agency officers searched his home in November 2016. They found hundreds of indecent images of children on his mobile phone. He had 247 category A images and videos (the most serious); 341 category B and 196 category C. In interview, Hopkins admitted knowing he should no…